Good Behaviour

My children might not have been angels, or perfect children when they were younger, but they were, in my modest estimation, good children. They were not mean, malicious, or cruel. They did not steal or lie (or, at least I never caught them at it). They were the type of young children other children liked to play with and the parents of other children like them as well. This is why the story my daughter told me last night about her first chocolate Advent calendar threw me for a loop.

Apparently, when she was six, I bought her her first chocolate Advent calendar. Previously she had the traditional paper calendars with drawings behind every window.

When she went to open up the first window, there was only an empty space behind the window. No chocolate was to be had.

She assumed this was because she hadn’t been a good girl. She didn’t tell me about it, because then I would know she had misbehaved. Isn’t that a sad thought?

She believed that Santa Claus didn’t put chocolate behind the calendar window, as a warning, “I know you’ve been bad!”

It took five or six days before she hit upon the window with all the fallen down chocolates in it. Then she thought she was being rewarded for good behaviour because she had given a boy in her class her recess snack the day before.

It took her years, and a few chocolate Advent calendars later, to discover that these calendars did not contain magical powers. She really believed them to be Santa Claus’ behaviour barometers.